Reflection for Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (7/14/13)

With all respect to the good
people at Nike, today’s first reading and Gospel share a common theme: Just Do
It! Moses points out to the Israelites that God’s commands are “something very
near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry
it out.” Jesus echoes this sentiment after sharing the story of the Good
Samaritan by imploring any who would follow him to “Go and do likewise.”

We love to rationalize and
qualify God’s word to us. We can build up complicated theologies and
interpretations to make the Gospel more manageable and less threatening. That’s
not to say that we don’t need theology, but we can’t allow ourselves to hide
behind our intellectual constructs and avoid the call to GO. We’re called to
show mercy and kindness, especially to those who hate or revile us. We’re asked
to be a light in the darkness. And we are being presented with more frequent
opportunities to demonstrate this as our world, given over to the culture of
death, becomes more emboldened in its contempt and hatred for God and his
chosen ones.

If wars are won in the trenches
then we must be mindful that our spiritual battle is being fought at the most
basic levels. Remembering the words of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, "Not
all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great
love." Motivated and dedicated to becoming a loving person, even to those
who would despise us, is not an empty task. It is not too small a thing. We
must remember Paul’s words to the Colossians that Jesus is in control; he holds
everything together in his hands. We cannot be paralyzed by fear nor
intimidated by the size of the challenge. We just need to start putting God’s
love into practice in our lives in order to demonstrate it to those around us.

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about me

I'm Tom Ponchak. I received a degree in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. After graduation I worked as a parish youth minister in Maryland and a high school religion teacher in Michigan.
In 1997, my wife and I left the Catholic Church and joined the Association of Vineyard Churches, a non-denominational, evangelical faith community. I was the founding pastor of Matthew's House Vineyard in central Florida.
After ten years away from Catholicism, and longing for the Eucharist, I returned to the Church in 2006. I am currently the Director of Adult Faith Formation at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish in Indiana. I am also a member of the Domestic expression of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity.